Latest KFF Health News Stories
Consumers Can Shift Health Savings Accounts For Better Options
KHN consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers readers’ questions about trying to get a better return on a health savings account, the Cadillac tax’s impact on a marketplace plan and finding insurance for a grandchild.
Chronically Ill Pay More in Obamacare Plans Than Employer Coverage
Patients on typical silver plans pay twice as much as workers with job-based insurance for prescription drugs each year, researchers find.
California Gov. Brown Signs Aid-in-Dying Bill Into Law
Brown said that he weighed the controversial issue carefully, and in the end decided that it would be a comfort to know the option was available if he were facing a painful, prolonged death.
Telemedicine Expands Despite Uncertain Financial Prospects
Apps and video chats are a part of many people’s days, so many industry leaders see big potential for medicine delivered remotely. But a lot of insurers still aren’t willing to pay for it.
Workplace Wellness Programs: Early Alarm For Workers’ Health Or A Recipe For Over-Testing?
Some experts worry that these programs encourage health screening that doesn’t necessarily comply with medical guidelines and is helping to drive up health care costs.
Letter To The Editor: FitBit On The Privacy And Safety Of Users’ Data
KHN periodically highlights reader reaction and responses to our stories. We edit for space and require full names. In response to KHN’s story, Workplace Wellness Programs Put Privacy At Risk (Hancock, 9/30) – Amy McDonough, vice president and general manager, Fitbit Wellness: Privacy is an important issue for our company. As the market leader in connected health […]
Adults With Insurance Often Still Have Unmet Dental Needs, Survey Finds
Dental care is the health service that people most frequently avoid because of cost, researchers at the Urban Institute found.
Hospital Care Unaffected By Quality Payments, GAO Finds
The Government Accountability Office found bonuses and penalties have been small, and hospital performance has been steady.
Newly Insured Treasure Medicaid, But Growing Pains Felt
People newly covered by the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion appreciate their insurance. But seeing specialists is still a hurdle for many.
Insurers Find Out-Of-Network Bills As Much As 1,400 Percent Higher
Insurers’ study points to the need for limits on out-of-network billing by doctors and hospitals. The American Medical Association calls the report “grossly misleading.”
How One Minority Community In California Is Fighting ‘Environmental Injustice’
Residents say a lead battery recycler’s decades of contamination in low-income, largely Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles County wouldn’t have been tolerated in wealthier areas.
Kids With Ebola? Texas Children’s Hospital Is Ready If It Happens In U.S.
One of the 55 hospitals nationwide that the CDC named as future “Ebola treatment centers” is Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. One year after the first confirmed case of Ebola in the U.S., the hospital is about to open a new eight-bed biocontainment wing — the only one of its kind for children in the country.
Pecked By A Chicken? Sucked Into A Jet Engine? There’s a Code For That
Voluminous and sometimes wacky new medical diagnostic codes in “ICD-10” have staffers at hospitals and doctors’ offices reaching for bromides.
GAO: More Oversight Needed Over Medicare Advantage Provider Networks
Congressional watchdog says the government checks few health plans to ensure accurate provider listings and adequate access for seniors on Medicare Advantage.
Poll Finds Overwhelming Support For Medicare Paying For End-Of-Life Talks
The plan to include funding in the health law for these discussions between doctors and patients was vehemently opposed by some Republicans, but 8 of 10 Americans support the practice.
Think Health Prices Are High Near You? Maybe Yes — And No
The Health Care Cost Institute’s analysis of billing claims from three of the biggest commercial insurers finds that health services can be expensive in some areas while bargains in others. The findings complicate an assumption about health care markets.
Privacy Advocates Urge Stronger Protection Of Employee Health Data
Existing laws designed to control what doctors and hospitals do with your information need to be expanded to employers’ wellness programs, say advocates.
7 Questions To Ask Your Employer About Wellness Privacy
Workplace wellness programs have joined doctors, hospitals and your mother in the campaign to get you healthy. Will they treat your data carefully?
Workplace Wellness Programs Put Employee Privacy At Risk
A large variety of information may be collected by wellness programs and shared with others, including businesses eager to make a buck off of it.
Airports’ Backscatter Security Scanners Easily Meet Radiation Standards, Panel Says
The National Academies of Science panel, however, did not address the question of whether these X-ray machines, which are currently not in use because of privacy concerns, are safe.